'I'm getting paid to live the dream': Super blogger Aimee-Rose Francis can command up to £5,000 from big brands... just for talking about their products on social media

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Aimee-Rose Francis, 23, blogs as @aimazin and has 30,000 followers
London-based 'digital influencer' started blogging as a hobby
Has been paid by brands including Reiss and H&M to promote products
Bloggers can reach key audiences but some are just out to get 'freebies'

Published: 03:34 EST, 8 July 2015 | Updated: 07:14 EST, 8 July 2015

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It looks, to all intents and purposes, like a smart-looking Londoner snapping a selfie outside The Wolseley restaurant before enjoying a lavish lunch.

However, the photograph below is actually a carefully choreographed image that could make thousands of pounds for both its subject and the companies behind the products featured within it.

Meet 23-year-old Aimee-Rose Francis - or as she's better known, @aimazin. You've probably never heard of her but for the popular brands that she wears, H&M and Reiss among them, Aimee-Rose is very much the future of advertising.

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Aimee-Rose Francis, 23, turned a hobby into a lucrative career. The former student started her @aimazin blog as a hobby but can now earn significant sums for wearing products

Determined: Travel, lifestyle and fashion are Aimee-Rose's speciality and her she now employs a representative to bring in more work

Travelling the world for free, Aimee-Rose has a diary that is 'jam-packed' until the end of the year

A self-styled 'Digital Influencer', Aimee-Rose's fashion blog @Aimazin - where she posts photos and words on everything from afternoon teas to her favourite new bikini - is powerful.

The reason why? Her 30,000 followers, many of whom are enraptured by what she wears and where she goes. Such adoration means that she's hot property for advertisers who want to reach her audience.

As such Aimee-Rose can command sums of up to £5,000 for talking about and being pictured with products. She currently travels the world - for free - and has a diary that is 'jam-packed' until the end of the year.

She tells FEMAIL: 'I travel a lot because of the blog, I’m very fortunate that I receive a lot of complimentary trips world-wide from Cannes to Maldives.

'My diary is jam-packed with travel until the end of the year, but I’m not complaining!'

Her best perk to date? She'll soon be driving a Fiat 500 around Italy. She says she meets lots of stars too: 'I see celebrities a lot because that's the industry I’m in but I haven't 'fan-girled' on anyone yet.

'I think the most interesting one so far was Kendall Jenner backstage at Giles [Deacon's fashion show], she was lovely and quite timid which is what made her even more attractive.'

Not bad for something that started out as a hobby while Aimee-Rose was studying for a religion, philosophy and ethics degree at King's College, London.

Big brands are attracted to 'digital influencers' because they promise access to niche target audiences

From the Maldives to Cannes, the 23-year-old says the international travel is 'any girl's dream'

Aimee-Rose Francis works up a sweat in the pilates studio

A single post in April last year made her see the potential: 'My first post was a fashion post of my personal style when I was blogging irregularly as a hobby.'

'It received attention, which is what drove me to turn it into a business, but it was only when I went full-time that I saw the pace pick-up, and it's growing every month.'

Within a month of blogging full-time, Aimee had secured her first paying client. 'That was the moment I knew that I could turn this into a livelihood.'

Aimee-Rose isn't alone. There are bloggers in every genre and most start because they have a genuine passion for a subject and want to share their enthusiasm.

Low-key British blogs including Eatlikeagirl, the foodie-inspired handiwork of Niamh Shields or The Quirky Traveller, an off-beat look at global travel from Zoe Dawes, have both enjoyed success.

Cook, food writer and social activist Jack Monroe's career started out with a A Girl Called Jack, an 'austerity recipe' blog about how she managed to feed her young son on a very tight budget. It was a huge hit and has seen Monroe's career take off.

The perk of the job to me is the freedom, it’s the fact I do have the ability to just get up and go on short-notice flights...and the arrival of packages never gets boring. I am always grateful, it’s any girl's idea of heaven!

On another, stratospheric level is teen sensation Zoella, aka Zoe Suggs, who has video blogged herself all the way to the bank; the 25-year-old star, who boasts seven million subscribers, has become a postergirl for YouTube.

Unknown before she started blogging, she's now published a best-selling book and has also just launched a Tutti Fruity range of bath products, which proved an instant hit this week after going on sale at midnight on Superdrug's website.

Exposure is everything when it comes to tempting new clients and Aimee-Rose, who has now employed another person to help build the business, spends much of her time trying to secure new deals.

'I think blogging is often underestimated, in order to gain recognition in the industry takes 100 percent commitment.

'Blogging is my full-time job, I work routinely everyday. I am a small, two-person team; I work with my representative - who has now become my best friend - and we solely focus on constantly developing new strategies to grow the blog at a faster pace.'

Blogging potential: Jack Monroe (left) has forged out a hugely successful career, which all started with her 'austerity recipes' blog, A Girl Called Jack. Right, Zoella - aka Zoe Suggs - has earned a fortune through vlogging

The 25-year-old's Tutti Fruity range - a collection of bath products - launched on Superdrug's website this week has proved an instant hit with hundreds of products selling overnight

Excited fans meet YouTuber Zoella at Superdrug beauty launch

One of those strategies has included taking out a full-page advertisement in the London Evening Standard's ES magazine, for a not unsubstantial fee of £5,000, to try and further raise awareness.

Of the bold commercial, she says: 'I received positive feedback from brands I was working with plus attracted new clients and new followers.

'The ad got people talking, journalists were interested and thought I was brave, but I also got trolled on Twitter.'

So what's the appeal of the 'digital influencer' and can a virtual unknown really inspire as much as a celebrity?

Ryan Levitt, Communications Manager of TubeMogul, a leading platform for digital branding thinks they can.

He told FEMAIL: 'Bloggers can have huge impact, especially among younger demographics and niche interest groups.

'It's not a secondary option for brands anymore - it's a primary option if they want to attract markets that matter to them.'

However, it's not quite so straightforward as 'blogger writes about things they love while occasionally getting paid to promote products they'd probably buy'.

Until next month, when new, clearer guidelines will be introduced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to closely monitor how bloggers are paid to promote, it's all a bit of a murky area, or as the more straight-talking Levitt describes it, like the 'Wild West.'

He says: Bloggers are increasingly being turned to for authentic advice and views. But the reality is that without any over-riding body to monitor what they do or give guidelines on how they operate, it's a bit of a Wild West.

The photogenic Aimee-Rose, pictured above left in a Mijanou bikini and, right, wearing a Melissa Odabash white bikini and gold headband, took an advert out in London's ES magazine last month to try and raise awareness about her blog

Emerging style icon: The blogger has gone from virtual unknown to commanding up to £5,000 from big brands

'You think what you are getting when you read copy is the true and honest view of a blogger - and you make purchasing decisions based on that fact. And with the good ones you are.

'But, there are also many that will do or say whatever brands want for a fee. And in my opinion, that's misleading.

'You also have to question when a brand is slammed by a blogger. Was it slammed because the product is honestly bad? Or because the blogger wasn't showered with gifts and whatever they wanted?'

At present, bloggers might use a #spon or #sponsored hashtag to make it clear that they're being paid but don't have to.

Matthew Wilson from the ASA told FEMAIL that new, more defined guidelines will make it easier for bloggers to be crystal clear about what they're being paid for.

'The new guidance is going to help bloggers understand how the ASA interprets advertising codes. We're telling them that they've got to make it clear and be upfront with their audience at the start, not just ad in the detail at the end of their piece. It's essential that they're upfront and clear.

He adds: 'These comprehensive guidelines will help them to do that.'

And for Aimee-Rose, the whirl of fashion, lifestyle and travel - all paid for - continues.

'The perk of the job to me is the freedom, it’s the fact I do have the ability to just get up and go on short-notice flights, events and have the time to work on a project.

'If I had other commitments I wouldn’t be able to do this.

'This is followed by the complimentary travel and gifted clothes. I’m used to it now, but the arrival of packages never gets boring I am always grateful, it’s any girl's idea of heaven.'

Nice work if you can get it.